as the u.s. election campaign enters the final straight with the two rival still neck and neck we look at how the race is increasingly resembling a reality show rather than that of a political face off. over a thousand rally for greater autonomy for libya's main oil because the country is still torn by conflict over a year since the western backed revolution. at the un is looking into what a brand of a shocking video which it suspects could be evidence of a crime committed by rebels in syria.

thanks so much for joining us here on r t today rule re suchet live in moscow there are just four days left before the u.s. presidential election but even on the final stretch barack obama and mitt romney remain effectively tied with neither debates nor a devastating hurricane giving either candidate tangible advantage questions of mounting what the most expensive campaigns in the country's history have really achieved there's also a growing feeling it was more about impressing the viewer than talking that of real politics. investigates. and fire in. the blame game in full swing why didn't you call me when you're working on this thing finger pointing p did make it worse mocking he even called it marvelous. which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget a tax this president's a lightweight we've all agreed that families are off limits dogs however are

apparently fair game what you're seeing is them finally rising up to the level of professional wrestling and i say rising up to it because in pro wrestling in front of the cameras we all hate each other behind the scenes it's a business. and that's the same way it is for them it's a sham a sham largely compared to reality television survivor style started out eliminating contestants on the island and then event they have to form alliances you can call those parties and then they finally in the grand ma you have to survivors who go head to head and they and that video gets the big just the big prize the big prize for years to run the united states of america the contestants are giving it their all to win the competition the concept of a reality show we all know is supposed to be some kind of reality but but in

reality it's just really made for t.v. and the presidential campaigns in the us are completely made for t.v. like in any major production a huge crew and big box run the game if they have people determine what a guy is going to wear what kind of haircut how much makeup you know some of these opportunities for a lot of people to get rich from looks to comments and statements most of the election campaign and scripted. the mainstream media following the presidential campaigns eats the show right up one example i'm going to stop the subsidy to p.b.s. i'm going to stop other things i like p.b.s. i love big bird the debates the first us presidential debate of two thousand and twelve had an audience of the million viewers that makes it the most successful most popular reality show. while fact checking leaves the building. in about track record about x. . year in year most of the coverage of.

you sporting a giant welcome mat for trivialized news coverage is romney hurting obama's feelings since obama hurting his feelings are they being cordial to each other or are they being angry look at the way obama looks up and looks down the show must go on and. the curtains are drawn presidential candidates putting on a performance to be voted into the white house the superficial media paying little attention to the actual words being said and not demanding to hear the words that should matter as the u.s. election enters its closing act and look to team ain't remains king and politics not much more than a circus and as they see it you're going to party new york. and win a presidential race spends all the signs of a stage show there are legitimate concerns about how committed the candidates are to making their campaign statements a reality and u.s. national security expert gareth porter shared his views on which election promises

are likely to remain nothing more than a simple t.v. performance the issues of u.s. national security policy and the military i'm sorry to say that i don't believe. obama will deliver on his campaign promise specifically to. us involvement in the war in afghanistan and the fact is the obama administration has made the decision that there will be a residual force of at least ten thousand for an indefinite period of time i think the closest romney and his running mate paul ryan have come to making a promise. is perhaps the idea of they would somehow be more successful in putting pressure on iran to end its nuclear program but i must say that it was not made with much conviction in the campaign in the last presidential debate romney was really more

a saying me too to president obama's policy toward iran. and suddenly both candidates had their own ways of dealing with the aftermath of hurricane sandy in an attempt to break the pre-vote deadlock with campaigning now fully back on track didn't new yorker laurie huff and este has been finding out who appear to come through it looking the best. new york was hit hard by hurricane sandy will it affect the way new yorkers vote or the way they look at the issues this week let's talk about that i was a county alan sixty floor and i seen every day there would just be water. water everywhere was industry do you think the government has handled the storm well know how could they have done better they could have gotten the subway running a lot quicker but you think they have anything to do with how much water down there you know i think they're just really slow to respond i mean the whole thing with

the buses over here is ridiculous and it's unconstitutional that you have to have three people in a car i used to going to vote on tuesday is that no then. the city could have been wiped away if the voting polls still stand i have to be there. reacted to it it seems to be good. to be. able to pull it together yes so do you think that obama's looking better than romney right now. i think that mitt romney is a much bigger natural disaster than hurricane sandy and i hope people realize that vote for obama you don't think there's anything wrong with obama i think there's plenty wrong in terms of his. foreign policy in the mideast but unfortunately he's the lesser evil the bottom line is this has been a tough time for new york city and most of us are looking forward to putting this hurricane and the election behind us.

and you will of course continue our coverage of the u.s. elections looking at the race from different perspectives plus so we are hosting a very special event this coming monday exclusively bringing you the final round of the third party debate hosted washington d.c. . will two parties keep us politics a one way street. or will new voices disrupt the power of power allow. us if america changes tracks us election or close god monday november fifth on our t.v. . do stay with us for that for now let's turn our attention to libya where crowds to the streets of benghazi the cradle of the uprising calling for greater autonomy for the oil rich region protesters complain the new leadership has deprived the

city of its fair share of both political and economic power our middle east correspondent paula has the latest on this. what in a thousand protesters have taken to the streets of the eastern city of benghazi they are calling for greater autonomy saying that they feel marginalized by the new government in tripoli now this comes a little more than a year on after the ouster of the former libyan leader moammar gadhafi and i asked ironically that of that the people of benghazi played such a central role in bringing about they are now saying that they were basically old before the revolution that the whole eastern part of the country is marginalized and deprived of political and economic power now what they want is an autonomous region in the east we're talking here about roughly half the territory of the obeah and around three quarters of the country's vast oil reserves what they also want is epping gazi will become the economic capital of libya what this means is that you

will have key institutions such as the central bank as well as the ministries of oil and finance based in the city now this is not a new court earlier this year we did see tribal leaders come together with the same demands they say that they want to manage the own affairs and also have a larger share of revenue from the resources that are in the east of the country what they warning is that if the demands are ignored they will be dire consequences and certainly what we witnessing is a growing mood of tension and discontent in the country that is being torn apart by protesters just a year on after the so-called revolution. and all the u.n. is examining a video which is says could be evidence of a war crime committed by the rebels in syria by the newly released online footage of purportedly shows opposition fighters executing captured government troops ten soldiers who are no longer believed to be compatible us are apparently shown being

beaten and lined up on the ground we want to show you the next disturbing scene but all the men with and repeatedly shot with automatic weapons investigative journalist. james covert says it's a rare case that the tactics of the opposition forces have now come under the international spotlight. the atrocities are definitely being committed by the rebel forces and and unfortunately that is being completely ignored because it serves of course the interests of the people who are backing the rebels and who are against assad to try to portray them in the best light possible so we've seen over the months numerous documents coming out from different organization including amnesty including including human rights watch documenting summary execution of prisoners torture the use of children in these conflict on the part of the rebels but that has been conveniently buried in the headlines time and time again and even some of the reports that didn't know some of these atrocities being committed by the rebels were almost always prefaced by reports of government atrocities and that was buried somewhere down halfway through the article time and time again so it is of course

and if the hypocrisy that's underlying this and that's trying to manipulate public opinion certainly in the west to to be on the floors and on the side of these rebel forces the only real plan that's on the table that right now that's feasible is the one that china just put forth the four point proposal for the syrian troops which also does not include any language for assad to step down it does not in court include any enforcement language which is a political long starter in washington because of course those are the two key issues that they want to make sure is part of any type of proposal so once again we see that that washington is really absolutely keen to make sure that assad stepping down as part of any proposal and i think they're not going to accept anything short of that. now where a recent ban on public rallies has failed to deter protesters from taking to the streets of several towns on friday and there are reports of police brutality thwarts the anti-government demonstrators and arrests of those documenting the

attacks of this all comes amid a judicial crackdown with yet another activist sentenced to six months in jail for allegedly insulting the king on twitter calling couple of former lecturer at the university of basra and says it's just too late for any international member to try and improve the situation in the gulf country. to jail someone for voicing their opinion but freedom of expression violates any standard of democracy around the world there is no improvement at all except that the regime is learning to play the world media like. they claim they support human rights they claimed to do the dialogue with the opposition they claim all sorts of strangers are not there and are just a roll of the in bahrain meanwhile they can do any of the great down they continue to torture and they continue to do and they continually purely and in bahrain we do

already overwhelming majority of the population over three quarters of the book relationship. or out of it the royal family which has been in power now for two hundred thirty years mostly they must have been over was there will be no social feat in bahrain and the situation will continue to get more chaotic. by from moscow this is r.t. still ahead for you in the program that of a shocking you to a healthier lifestyle i will reveal one radical approach to turning people off junk food with the help of a deadly disease has that story that's coming up after a short break. horses and bayonets big bird these are the words of internet legend from the two

thousand and twelve presidential debates when a candidate says something dog did to so much fun to make silly pictures like these on the internet whole he but the problem is that the person who wins the bait is the one who makes the best argument not he who doesn't make a verbal slip ups people react to these the. it's like school girls picking prom queen or rummy talked about big bird who howard dean scream. gaffes don't matter that much it matters if the idea is the candidates present are effective or not but more importantly it matters if they will actually do them if a future can say proposed a brilliant economic plan that could save america but instead of saying pennies let the word penis slip or gossip celebrity culture would make him lose the election for sure his opponent's army of photoshop or sort of hundreds of copper fellas is drawn all over the internet by the next day a schoolgirl attitude towards politics won't do anything except make fun internet

memes but that's just my opinion. more news today violence is once again fleda. these are the images real world has been seeing from history and canada. china operations through today. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear sees some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

soon which brightened if you knew about song from feinstein crashing. through star totty dot com. the news sigrid laboratory to mccurry was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tombs mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only on the dog.

if you're just joining us welcome to the program here on arts hey i'm rory sushi and russia is a premiere dmitri medvedev says that members of the controversial pussy riot feminist group should not have been given jail sentences for their stunt in moscow's main cathedral at the same time though medvedev also said their morals leave a lot to be desired. it's you people you know very unpleasant to me both on the outside and only it could fill me with extreme negative emotions and still so much so that i don't like talking about the move but i wouldn't put them in jail if i were a judge just because i don't consider it correct that their punishment was in the form of a custodial sentence they've already spent some time in custody that's actually enough now three members of the pussy riot band were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred of course this after performing their so-called punk

prayer in moscow's christ the savior cathedral they were sentenced to two year jail terms but after an appeal hearing one of them was released on probation the women insist the stunt was a political one and against the authorities of the case though caused outrage among the religious community and split the russian public. why more news for you regarding our web site online dot com where it's reported the u.k. fighter jets are being heard of rolling around the skies of the persian gulf rumors spreading fast that london may deploy some jets amid growing tension between israel and iran over its nuclear program. plus the long way home online we've got the story of eleven women who have been helped captive inside a supermarket. are

twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow nearly time for the world update for now doctors around the globe sound the alarm against a rise in obesity and its dire health consequences medics in canada have come with a rather graphic idea of how to warn against the risks but one man's meat is another man's poison as they say and the proposal is fast becoming one hot potato. reports. imagine you're about to bite into your pizza when you see this disease liver or perhaps you're taking a swig of your drink when this diseased foot catches your eye put off your food well that's just the effect some doctors in canada want frustrated with a growing epidemic of obesity but on tyrion medical association have taken a leaf from their anti smoking contemporaries book and called for graphic labeling on fatty sugary and salty processed foods they say society must stop tiptoeing

around health risks such as diabetes heart and liver disease which can arise from eating too much of certain foods what we want to do is we want to tax foods that are high in calories in the nutritional value and give tax breaks to healthy foods but as you might imagine the shock food tactics have been hard to swallow for those who make or enjoy eating but targeted products they think the labels are over the top and accuse doctors of demonizing certain products and food categories carrying them back so to every day beverage items non-sensical smoking tobacco products you don't really have a balance in healthy ways that various food and beverage products which the ontario medical association would place label warnings on i can absolutely heart of a balance other proposals that have sparked controversy include labeling excessive

salt sugar and fat as pathogens that is disease causing viruses and bacteria age limits for buying soft drinks and temporarily taking some obese children away from their parents william endl author of seeds of destruction says the doctors are right about the dangers of highly processed foods but that these labels will simply be ignored i don't know any single cigarette smoker who they pick up their cigarettes to make. their blind a little bit i don't think that stuff. anybody the foods are engineer today and this has been tested in private lab the borders of foods are engineers today in many cases to be addicted to stimulate the pleasure center of the brain so until you forced by law to change that kind of a who content you're not going to have any solution to this my mother theo and they also recommends higher taxes and marketing restrictions on junk food especially to children statistics suggest twenty six percent of canadian children aged five to seventeen are overweight or obese. starting with australia into the arts he will

drop that we go one person killed at least eight others injured after a passenger train collided with a lorry in the australian capital train driver was seriously wounded and remains in a critical but stable condition and while the truck driver escaped with only minor injuries local officials say they don't know yet what exactly could and why the accident happened but investigation is already underway. one of the most important christian pilgrimage destinations in jerusalem has announced it's shutting its doors the church of the holy it's a public built on a hill where believers say jesus was crucified is protesting sudden demands to pay off its two million dollar water bill to the israeli state water authority it's appealing to the israeli government claiming the move undermines the sanctity of the site all right up ahead for us here in our host abby martin takes a closer look at the nature of the two party system in america that's in breaking

the set interest a few minutes. no one should be proud heaps of scrap metal littering pristine arctic landscape buildings tilting over their foundation pipes being black smoke over the snow covered peaks the traces of the soviet industrial activity on the spitzbergen archipelago don't make a pretty picture if the guiding principle here is the worse the better local like to tell the story that back in soviet times there were no regions visiting barons were they all want to. be and how prosperous this was well times have obviously changed by this own flag now attracting new region tourists or barons work and without much needed cast. that's why while. our goal

is common here a few days ago instead of throwing it away. and. where that can do nine hundred eighty there was a burgeoning mining community. determined to maintain it all costs. half way between north america and western europe bergen archipelago is part of norway with a special status that allows other countries to set up industrial bases here in the middle of the cold war it served as the. most outpost now it's one of the last preserved relics. picture of the soviet union if it was from any financial support for two decades curious interested i think it could be even more appealing for russia. to keep its presence on spitsbergen russia.

mine here but in terms of profit is far behind local souvenir shops. is a big hit defunct are incurred in still helps keep the money flowing. the local administration is increasingly under pressure to bring the infrastructure up to more than standards. for its a not very popular with tourists. should stay the way it is that would be my wish i mean that's the part of. the time the change even for the better is not always good for business something that even a local band has become attuned to when they try to add the morning rush and so. to

the repertoire the audience called the wanted to hear it was a song comfortably familiar and. here's mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call a donor night concludes the longest and while this campaign in our history colors eleven world that made for a magical before our eyes that some additional time with twists and turns in the hallmarks of this campaign is what you like but we're going to do your numbers

you're going to like to talk. to some guys i'm having martin and this is breaking the set so let's talk about tasers and i was shocked to hear about a news story coming out of an elementary school in new mexico where career day presentation by a police officer resulted in a ten year old student taking a fifty thousand volt taser shot to the chest that's right a new mexico cop taser a ten year old why you may ask well because a kid refused to clean his comp or aside from thinking what the hell is this world coming to this story got me thinking about how dangerous these supposedly less than lethal weapons are the boy's family filed a lawsuit citing that he could have faced death or serious bodily injury from getting tate's did you know that there have been around five hundred taser related

deaths in the u.s. since two thousand. but i guess that's not enough death to constitute a reevaluation of how our law enforcement uses these weapons so stop tasing us bro to break the set i'm first bringing you an interview i just did with ralph nader last night. the much more of the searching going to be like but. i think. you may already be aware that there's a third party debate taking place right here on monday night and one well known political activists is hosting another third party debate this sunday right here in washington d.c. that activists is perennial presidential candidate ralph nader and his message is clear out with the old and in with the new new political direction that is sort of talk about the desperate need for a third party voice and breaking out of the lesser of two evils mentality i'm joined by the third party girl.